Well well well - look what's here; it's White Dwarf and it's early... WHAAAA?!As you may have noticed, we haven't done a White Dwarf review for some time, basically because it comes out in the shops before our subscription gets here.Games Workshop have pretty much put the blame on Australia Post, until a conversation last month where we pointed out to them that it takes more than a week to get from them to a house if you're using the cheapest postage rate. Well it looks like them posting it when they should have has worked and we now have a White Dwarf, a full 24 hours before shelf date - the excitement is palpable, if the word "excitement" is appropriate...With Chapter Approved on the horizon for this week, plus the imminent release of 8th Edition Codex for two fo the founding Space Marine Chapters of Warhammer 40K, one would think that these would be the focus of this issue, well Padwan, we were both wrong! ++More After The Jump++

I know Chapter Approved is the big thing this week - but those Battleforces... NO! Discipline, go in order dammit....Alrighty, so Chapter Approved is back and this time in book form. The very first Chapter Approved was actually the Warhammer 40,000 Compendium way back in the day when Rogue Trader was first released. There have been various incarnations along the way, including White Dwarf doing the brunt of the work, and now Chapter Approved as it's own book is back, in fact it comes in Warlord Edition and Standard) ! Now the good news is that it's a thing, the bad news is that it seems GW will also not be seeing this as necessarily definitive - is this a repeat of the Indexes? *Sad face* The big thing people are excited about in this is the customisable Land Raider section which seems very easy to use and great fun - so to help with that, the Land Raider Terminusand the Land Raider Upgrade sprue have been re-released. Can I talk about Battleforces now? SQUEE!Oh My God! Games Workshop may have actually got he Battleforce right. After years of muddling around the edges and releasing big boxes of miniatures they may have actually released Battleforces that you can not only field as a force on their own without much of anything to add at all! Now some of these are better than others, but none the less, all worth a look - lets start with Age of $igmar! The Battleforce for Kharadron Overlords seems to be the one that sticks out as the one you may have to add to, but have a look at the Blade of the Blood Queen, the Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Brotherhood and the mutha-load that is the Tzeentch Arkanites Changecult. As you can see, these are armies in a box. If I didn't already have tonnes of Tzeentch... and the others are just as good DAMMIT!Warhammer 40K is also pretty cool - the T’au Empire Rapid Insertion Forceis effectively a beefed up Stealth Cadre and is great value for money, the Astra Militarum Battlegroup is a good starter for a mechanised infantry, Genestealer Cults Insurrection is pretty much all you would need, Orks Cult of Speedis very similar to the Imperial Guard one though possibly not as well balanced. Not to be outdone, there is also a very good scenery bundle - Planetstrike & Stronghold Assault Terrain CollectionSo as you can see, excellent value on the whole - stop tempting me GW!Away from the core universe for a second, The Hobbit is still here and after a premature preview last week in the email from GW, here they actually are, the Mirkwood Armoured Elves Warband, a lovely little set, but compare that price to the Battleforces and it's a tough week to come out. It's like if you went to the beach with your partner and they were filming a swimsuit commercial right there. I mean come on. That's not even fair! You'd just keep your shirt and shorts on and hide under an umbrella. Who needs the competition?-Books - glorious quality sporadic books! Old Earth is a story of Vulkan, Primarch of the Salamanders, a tale of duty and a man with a big hammer! Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden takes place in the Ao$ universe.-White Dwarf for December is out next week. Now we got our White Dwarf subscription 2 weeks after shelf date here in Australia, so we should have this one just before Xmas! This month sees an interesting article on using Genestealer Cults in Space Hulk. This is an old favourite of White Dwarf, in fact one of my first issues had using power armour in Space Hulk instead of Terminator armour. Anyway, it's coming!

Necromunda Underhiveis now out and with all the buzz around it, we thought we'd dive into the boxed set rule book and give you an overview of what you get. The rule book is actually quite extensive - it's 103 pages divided into eight main sections. Off the bat it's actually really great to see the amount of fluff in this rule book. In recent times GW have been moving away from fluff in rule books, but this book has a solid 30 pages or so of dedicated fluff and that doesn't include the gang backgrounds. You could see it as a much expanded version of the White Dwarf article from last month - we're taken through the Houses, the history of different Hives on Necromunda, the Spires, teased with some cool background on political machinations, get a tantalising glimpse of the Imperial Fists garrison on Necromunda, have Eldar, Squats and Beastmen all mentioned plus the gangs from the old game fleshed out in quite good detail. Overall this is a great part of the book and gives lots of ideas, pointing to possible Genestealer Cults, mutants and mentions Psykers quite a lot.Speaking of gang backgrounds it does need to be said that there are only rules in the boxed set for making either Escher or Goliath gangs. if you're doing something fun like Dark Eldar slavers or even any of the legacy gangs, this rule book will not give you the answers you're after - there are clues though.Basically you have 1500 points to form your gang. The gang members vary in price depending on the gang and their role (Leader/ Champion or Ganger) then you add the price of the weapons they carry. The more weapons or exotic load outs, the less gang members you can have. You are restricted to between 0-2 Champions and of course only one Leader, but the rest can be fleshed out as Gangers. In the old days people would have two tiers of Gangers, the well armed ones, and then Juves who would be less well armed but fill out the lower points you needed to have to get to 1500. As well as basic rules there is also an Underhive Armoury secton on the weapons of the Underhive (mainly for Escher and Goliaths) and then some missions, which are set out in a very similar style to the old Space Hulkmissions.As far as GW rule books go, this is a good one but it's areal shame that they didn't include a generic Gang Bulider system so all those people whop are busily hobbying in preparation, and I have to say that the majority of people we've talked to ARE making their own gangs, can't use them straight out of this box.Now that being said, this morning there has been a PDF released for the Legacy Gangs of Necromunda - from House Orlock to Cawdor - which will give all of us a basis to make our gangs using the weapon profiles and points costs. This is a great service ot the Community and good to see that GW have seen the buzz and paid attention to it so the hobby element of this game isn't lost! (File attached below)

It's not often I get to do Gundam - they're pretty involved, but when I saw these Gundam Exceed Zaku 2 heads the other day, it seemed like a bit of cheap fun! You can pick them up for a few dollars (at least overseas, in Australia they are around $10) so why the Hell not!?This guy was painted with a mix of GW paints, and that's the Death Guard Green for the base colour - I wonder if it's so perfect on purpose? He is also extensively weathered, with GW washes for rust and then 4B pencil for the paint ships. This heavily weathered look was inspired by MS 8th Team which takes place on earth and involves urban and jungle warfare - a perfect way to get paint chips! The rust is only in a few places as it seemed a bit heavy for the scale. Scale is a major problem I have with GW weathered vehicles. On something that scale you would be unlikely to see the heavy paint chipping or orange rust we're seeing in the current meta, but for something this scale (1/35 or larger) it would be more obvious. Anyway, that's just my theory. So very happy with this for a first go especially with it only take a couple day days to do.

The base model is, as I said above, a Gashapon toy, that in Japan you would probably get at a vending machine or on the counter of a local shop. They start off as a ball, that breaks apart and you get the multi-part toy inside. You could just leave it like that.. or go nuts and do this instead!! Hahaha.

We don't usually give Forge World a look in on the weekly pre-orders, but this week they have announced the release of a pretty rare miniature in terms of the 40K universe - Gor Half-horn, Beastman Bounty Hunter. The Beastmen have been one of the big losers in the retconning of the 40K universe. Having once served proudly in the service of the Imperium (and Chaos), it was decided that they were in fact abominations and should be no the most hunted form of Abhuman in the galaxy, which is a shame because they added much needed variety to the ranks of white males in the forces of Man. The sidelining of Beastmen by the Imperium was actually the reason why they turn up in our Tau forces - seems to make sense fluff-wise - the Tau would accept them with open arms! Anyway, this is a cool miniature from Forge World, and although meant for Necromunda, here's hoping we may see more Beastmen in the 40K and Necromunda world too!-The only other release this week that aren't part of the massive dump from last week, are two books; the Deathwatch Omnibus which is a massive tome with 3 full novels plus a heap of short stories all surrounding the Deathwatch. Also this week is the Devastation of Baal which hopefully serves the Blood Angels and their Successor Chapters better than the more recent outings. The Blood Angels are a proud First Founding Legion, and they deserve more respect than to be relegated to second tier players.

Now as an aside - currently on the Black Library site, they have nine Print on Demand Necromunda books! Necromunda has a long and proud history and Games Workshop once threw a tonne of time and effort into it, so these stories have some great fluff, so if you're thinking of Necromunda, then these would be great background and give a great insight into the wider conflict. Click on the banner below for the link!

As Forge World and Black Library falter over the Horus Heresy, some amazingly clever people have entered the arena - Project Tetrarchis just one of those projects. He has created one of the most evocative pieces of filmatic Horus Heresy work you will be every likely to see. He has created a trailer for his upcoming short and you have to see it to believe it. From the ornate decoration on the Ultramarine armour, to the brutal World Eaters in full flight - there is so much detail here that is has to be seen and appreciated!Project Tetrarch, well done, we are so excited to see what you come up with.

Really? Oh come on... a two week Necromunda release window?! That's so boring... unless next week there will be more gangs!!! More gangs! Genius. Hahaha.So yes, Necromunda is here and what a bargain the boxed game has turned out to be - for what is effectively the price of the two gangs, you get the whole game, plus the scenery. That's really cool. So it's up to you - do you get the boxed Necromunda game, or do you get the different elements separately, which in a really wise move GW have done on the same release day! You can get the boxed Necromunda: Underhive, or you can pick from the Goliathor Escher gangs. Now if you want to build your own gangs, there are also some excellent Necromunda bases which come in 32mm or 25mm. These look great and will def be on our list to buy! There's also a bucket load of scenery - there's the Bulkheads Doors or the Barricades and Objectives. Staying on Necromunda for a while, there's the Gang Cards for Goliathand Escher, and Goliath and EscherGang Dice. In another smart move, They have also released the Necromunda: Gang Warrule book for playing your gangs in the wider Warhammer 40K universe using the Sector Mechanicus scenery. Time will tell if other gangs will be listed in this book, a the Community is eager to hear who will be coming next. Speaking of Sector Mechanicusscenery there are three new kits, the Promethium Refinery,Thermic Plasma Conduitsand Thermic Plasma Regulators.There is also a pre-order that actually comes out next week - that's the Warhammer Quest cards for Chaos Adversaries which is pretty cool and should have more attention than to be lost in this large release week!-What would a week be without some books, and Necromunda gets a run here with the Kal Jericho Omnibus. This is some old school fiction and from all accounts worth a read! Kal Jericho was an anti-hero in the world of 40K and Necromunda back in the day. He appeared in novels and comics, so he's got some good lineage on him for sure! The Geld is a Raven Guard 40K audio drama, and Overlords of the Iron Dragon is a glam metal album with really high vocals and a story of fantasy and mirth... no, sorry - it's actually the first Kharadron novel... not sure if they are into glam metal, but it would be cool if they had it blaring out of their flying ships!

As a frame of reference, I want to start out by saying that I'm not into Warcraft - that's it, precursor done - HOWEVER, they did the most amazing thing for their fans at the recent BlizzCon 2017, that we literally have chills, in fact almost a small tear comes to the eye.Blizzard, the manufacturers of Warcraft the MMORPG, randomly selection 10,000 player's characters from the game, had that character 3D printed and then included it on a massive diorama to celebrate the new expansion for World of Warcraft, Battle of Azeroth. This thing is enormous too!​Have a look at this video and imagine if you got to have your character that you had built, tweaked and quested with from the beginning of your time in the game become real - even in 28mm scale.This is so awesome and has caused such a buzz here today! To the players who saw your character come to "life", this must have been amazing! To Blizzard, well done. So so cool.

With Necromunda the new "it" thing in the community at the moment, the voracious appetite of the fans knows know ends. Thankfully Games Workshop have left us some clues to the next gangs we may see in the Necromunda expansions. In these images (below) posted on the Necromunda Facebook, we have circled two named gangs - the Orlocks and the Van Saar.

Fluff changes (as we have seen in the Forge World Horus Heresy books) but the background for these two gangs is really quite varied and offers conversion potential for the hobbyists out there!House Orlock - were one of the gangs in the original starter box (along with Goliaths) and have been traditional allies for House Escher. While not street scum or muties, Orlock are workers, the every man of the Necromunda world. In look they traditionally have a love for the bandanna and long loins clothes!House Van Saar - are very different. They are the rich kids, with money to spend on augmentation and the best weapons money can buy, in fact other Houses prize Van Saar weaponry highly. The look of Van Saar is similar to the suits worn in the Dune movie - close fitting with thin piping, almost membrane-like!-Now things may have changed in the fluff from then to now, but we wouldn't be surprised to see a link between the Mechanicum and Van Saar and for Van Saar to potentially be a bit more techno-organic than their original incarnation. House Orlock could probably also do with a new look, so it will be interesting to see if they are still seen as the every-man House or if they will have a whole new back story.Either way, Necromunda, if fed new releases often, could very well sky-rocket in popularity.

Next week also sees a bunch of hobby releases as well - some new products and some bundles.Something that has really surprised quite a few people is the Citadel Painting Handle. There's been a few Kickstarters to offer these to hobbyists over recent years - but for GW to bring one out at such a cheap price is pretty amazing! Less amazing and expensive for what it is is the Warhammer 40K Journal. Granted it comes with especially printed pages for stats etc, but still pretty $$. There is also an Age of $imar one if that is your flavour! The Citadel Green Measuring Tapeis a must for gamers and at this price is starting top compete with the ones you can buy at a hardware store. Not to be forgotten, the Citadel Paint Mat and Water Pothave also been given a re-release too. Now what would the hobby be without paint? Well it would be grey plastic and resin... BUT there are some new paint sets on the way - the Layer Paint Set, the Air Paint Set. the Base and Shade Paint Set(frankly the best set here), the Texture and Base Paintset which comes with basing materials. Then there's the Ultimate Paint Collection which is amazing - if you want to pay out that much on the hobby. Amazing start!

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In a time before 40k, there was a band of men and women who took part in gaming without the corporate sensibilities of today. Take a step back with us and also look upon the future through wizened eyes and curious ponderings of The Beardy Hammer!